Men's experiences of their partner's vaginismus (A phenomenological study)

Introduction: Vaginismus is one of the sexual dysfunctions in women which is associated with pain during sexual intercourse and affects the sexual relation of couples. The purpose of this study was to explain the experience of men whose wives are suffering from vaginismus. Methodology: This study is a phenomenological research, with the Van Manen’s approach. The participants consisted of seven men, whose wives was suffering from vaginismus, selected through the purposive sampling method and questioned in semi-structured interviews. The acquired data awas analyzed by Van Manen’s approach. Results: Two main themes extracted from data analysis: "the shadow of the disorder in couple's life." and "the encountering approach with the disorder". Each theme is included in several subthemes. Conclusion: The findings indicated that men who living with wives with vaginismus are faced with serious challenges in various dimensions of life. The process of following-up and treatment are repeatedly disrupted by faulty diagnosis and lack of specialized therapists. This makes to be challenged encounterance approach, with this disorder, and the duration of the conflict with vaginismus takes a long time. The main reason for these challenges is the lack of information and knowledge about the vaginismus. This can be due to the taboo of sexual education to the children, especially for girls in Iran.